CYIL vol. 16 (2025)

PALLAVI KISHORE countries may not be able to enact strict consumer protection laws for their respective domestic jurisdictions due to lack of expertise and because their own producers and traders may not be able to comply with them. Consequently, there might be a conflict of interest between the less-developed countries and their consumers since the latter might want to be protected in ways which the less-developed countries cannot provide. Thus, the argument is that differences in levels of development and in consumer protection interests must be taken into account while drafting a consumer protection law at the international level. This can be done by having an equitable consumer protection law, something which may not necessarily be achieved by enacting a uniform law and following it up with exceptions like special and differential treatment, since this has not been entirely successful in the case of the WTO. 55 However, the question remains as to the content of this treaty and its enforcement. Should the treaty lay down binding minimum standards with which the less-developed countries may or may not be able to comply? How to implement these minimum standards? Who should be party to the treaty? Should it be the subjects of international law i.e. States or consumers or both? Should the treaty have a judicial mechanism and how should it function? Should both the State and the consumer be allowed to bring cases or should only one of them be allowed to do so? Who would be the respondent? The State or its producer/trader? Additionally, this court would be another addition to the multitude of existing international tribunals and it will need to be ensured that its jurisdiction does not clash with their jurisdictions. Moreover, only very privileged States/consumers would be able to bring cases to this court i.e. less developed States and their consumers would be excluded. For this reason, less-developed countries might not want to be party to the treaty in the first place. Perhaps, there is no treaty at present due to these issues. Furthermore, some of these issues would arise even if the treaty were to be enforced by means of national courts. If the treaty were to be enforced by means of another international judicial forum like that of the WTO, it would only be possible if there is an overlap between the substantive law of the treaty and that of the WTO. But WTO law does not mandate consumer protection. An overlap in the membership of the two treaties as well as the consent of their membership to use the WTO judicial forum for this purpose would also be needed. This means that consumers not covered under the membership of the two treaties would be deprived of protection. In any case, the WTO does not allow individuals to be Members and its dispute resolution procedure is rather expensive 56 and not very effective in view of the absence of the AB. In such a situation where harmonization of consumer protection law at the international level is not possible, it would be better to enhance cooperation to enforce existing consumer protection mechanisms. Although there are many bodies for this purpose including the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network, none of them has universal coverage. 57 As highlighted earlier, this fragmentation is a persistent feature of consumer protection in international law. 55 KISHORE, Pallavi, Special and Differential Treatment in the Multilateral Trading System, 13(2) Chinese Journal of International Law, June 2014, pp. 391–393. 56 BAHRI, Amrita, ALI, Toufiq, Using dispute settlement partnerships for capacity building Bangladesh’s triumphant experience at WTO DSU, 18(1) Journal of International Trade Law and Policy , 2019, p. 20. 57 DUROVIC, M., International Consumer Law: What Is It All About?, 43 Journal of Consumer Policy , 2020, pp. 125–126, 135–136, 140.

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